The Auction Market: Longtime Sale Barn Owner Shares Top Tips to Achieve the Most Value
FJFD-AMY AND KARL LANGVARDT#1
Karl Langvardt, has a long history with sale barns, as his family has owned barns in Junction City and Clay Center, Kansas, for more than 55 years. Together with his wife Amy, of Lyons Angus Ranch, he shared his top tops for getting the most value out of a sale during the recent Farm Journal Field Days Hay Forage and Cattle Premiums edition.
The key points he sees that add value are: Kind, Quality, Condition and Fill.
“Those are the biggest things that set the tone of how you sell livestock,” he says. “If you precondition and complete vaccinations and have certification of what you’ve done, that add value.”
He also says communication is key before the cattle are announced.
“If you come to us and give us the sheet of what the cattle have had, we’ll announce it. We work on trying to get the top dollar for that animal. It doesn’t mean that every one is the same price, but the more information and the more things you do to improve, that helps you,” Karl says.
Amy says that the seedstock part of it comes into play as well.
“If a producer is investing in quality genetics that’s where you’d want to pass that along to the sale barn operator and the auctioneer and make sure the buyers know, because it’s quality and reputation that sells, like in every business,” she adds.
It’s like most things in business, Karl continues, the more you add, the more you get back.
“As a whole the more you invest in a better bull, that produces a better calf, the better he looks, the better he does. And if you take care of him in better ways that makes a difference too,” he says.
Watch more with Karl and Amy below.
Don’t forget to register for Farm Journal Field Days this August 23-27, with both in-person and online offerings, there’s something for everyone.
